comparative evaluation of vdrl test and point-of-care test (poct) for the diagnosis of syphilis in pregnant women

Background: syphilis is a venereal disease caused by treponema pallidum affecting 12 million people each year, worldwide. treponema pallidum cannot be cultivated in vitro and is thus diagnosed clinically by; direct demonstration of treponemes based on dark field microscopy, polymerase chain reaction (pcr) and/or serology methods.methods: a total of 100 serum samples from women attending antenatal clinic for syphilis screening were taken. vdrl test and syphilis rapid card (poct) were performed as per the manufacturer’s protocol. tpha test was performed for the confirmation.results: all the 100 antenatal patients were screened for syphilis using vdrl, syphilis card test (poct), and confirmation was done by tpha. three samples were reactive by both vdrl and poct giving a positivity of 3%. those three samples positive by the vdrl and poct were also positive by tpha test.conclusion: antenatal syphilis screening with immunochromatographic assays, along side the confirmatory tests such as tpha, offers a cost-effective solution, and further research is recommended to assess its feasibility and wider application in peripheral health settings.